Alfred stood by the cluster of lockers near the front of the school, his bookbag slung casually over one shoulder as he leaned against the wall. He tried to stay as still as possible, but it was difficult with all the students that kept bumping into him on their way out of the building. Usually, Alfred knew better than to block the path of the horde of teenagers as they headed home from school, but today was a special occasion. Arthur was meeting him at the senior lockers (which were, contrary to the name, not always used by seniors – they were just called that) so that he could bus home with him.
He might have felt ashamed that he didn't yet have his license if Arthur wasn't in the exact same position. Neither of them could drive (and even if they could, neither of them had a car), so when Alfred had decided to make good on the promise he had made the week prior, they were stuck taking the bus back to his house. He, frankly, was a little excited – not just because he had the opportunity to be a real hero, but because the only friend he had that regularly came over was Kiku (and while Kiku was still his best friend, there was only one of him for Alfred to hang out with).
He pulled his bookbag a little closer to his shoulder as another student brushed past him. A little voice in his head wondered whether or not he should feel guilty for thinking that way about Kiku, but he decided it wasn't worth the internal debate and dropped it. It wasn't like Arthur was going to take his place as Alfred's best friend, he was just hanging out with him for a while (if you could even count tutoring as hanging out), so it was fine.
Eventually, Alfred could spot Arthur trying to weave his way through the crowd, and practically ran after him. It wasn't very likely that he'd be able to force his way through to the senior lockers, not with how thick the congregation of students had gotten, so Alfred decided that it was his duty as a hero to help save him from getting trampled (he had been feeling very heroic lately – ever since the incident in the lab, his superhero obsession had at least tripled). Arthur barely had time to register that he was there before he was being grabbed by the arm and pulled into a small side corridor.
When Alfred finally let go of him, he sent a glare his way, rubbing his upper arm and asking, "What what that for?"
Alfred tried to shrug nonchalantly, but he was unable to keep an excited grin off of his face. "You looked like you were about to get run over. Besides, it's easier to get to my bus this way." He gestured towards the end of the hallway, where a few sets of sliding doors were located.
Arthur furrowed his brows. "What the hell is that?" He asked, "It looks like airport security."
"It's just a couple sliding doors and a place to sign in. There's not even a metal detector," He reasoned as he dragged him down the hallway once more, "How could you not have known this was here? Haven't you been going to this school for three years?"
"Yes," Arthur argued as they passed through the doors and out of the building, "And I think I would have known if that monstrosity had been there the whole time."
Alfred chuckled. "They're just a couple of doors, dude. No need to get your panties in a knot." He laughed as they walked down the sidewalk, "Although it is pretty weird that they put it in the middle of the hallway. Nobody can walk through there at all because there's just a giant glass box in the way."
Arthur looked vaguely smug at that, but Alfred decided to ignore it in favor of pointing out his bus and forcing him onto it. He smiled and waved at the bus driver as they walked past him before slamming himself down into a seat and pulling Arthur beside him.
"If you keep doing that, I'll slap you upside the head." Arthur threatened, scowl on his face.
Alfred laughed, bright grin on his face. "Hey man, seating on this bus is competitive. You've gotta claim your seat before anyone else gets to it. And you definitely don't wanna sit by yourself on here – you might end up having to sit by a middle schooler."
Arthur scoffed. "Oh come off it, they can't be that bad." He reasoned, "You were a middle schooler once as well."
"Yeah, but see whereas you and I came from England and America, respectively, these kids came from the depths of hell." Alfred argued, to which Arthur only responded with a roll of his eyes, "Hey man, you'll see. They're evil."
Once everyone had shuffled out of the school and into their respective vehicles, the busses began to pull of the parking lot one by one, Alfred's bus following at the rear of the line. He was caught between looking out of the window and smiling at Arthur, who at that point had a scowl slowly developing on his face. He didn't really want to say 'I told you so', but he really couldn't help the smug grin that painted his face (because he was right).
"How in the entire world is it physically possible to be this loud?" He questioned as he flicked a paper wad that had landed on his shoulder onto the bus floor.
Alfred shrugged. "They're all devil spawn."
A loud shout was heard from the back of the bus, and Arthur looked equal parts disgusted and offended. "We have been on here for all of five minutes and I'm relatively sure I have heard every curse word known to man."
Alfred laughed, happy to have Arthur's running commentary to listen to. "I mean I know my bus is pretty bad, but a lot of this is standard behavior. Is your bus like some magical alternate dimension where people aren't all total assholes?"
"My bus is a normal mode of transportation in which I don't get screamed at constantly. I can hardly hear myself think in here." He complained, leaning his head back against the seat.
"Well, the good news is that most of them get off within like 20 minutes." Alfred tried to reason.
Arthur sat up, looking at him suspiciously. "20 minutes? How long do you stay on the bus?"
Alfred looked at him sheepishly. "Mattie and I may or may not be the last people to get off the bus."
Arthur crushed his hands into his face, rubbing at his eyes. "You've got to be kidding me."
Alfred laughed and pulled out a pair of headphones, handing one of the buds to Arthur. "Put this in, it'll be over before you know it."
True to his word, the next hour passed relatively quickly, and soon enough the bus pulled up to a average-sized white house on the outskirts of town. Alfred waved goodbye to the bus driver and jumped from the steps to the ground, earning him a glare from Arthur. Matthew just walked past them both with a sigh, unlocking the door before disappearing inside.
Alfred once again grabbed hold of Arthur's wrist, dragging him into the house as Arthur protested. Alfred only laughed and shoved both of their bookbags onto a chair before turning around and gesturing grandly at his surroundings.
"Welcome to the home of the Jones family, Arthur!" He exclaimed.
"It's very nice, Alfred." Arthur humored him, a small smile on his face.
"Yeah, it's pretty great, right?" Alfred enthused, not noticing his friend's thinly veiled sarcasm, "Wait till you see my room, it's kind of amazing. And – oh, I almost forgot. Do you want something to drink or a snack or something? I think I've got a bag of chips."
Arthur opened his mouth to respond, but Alfred just kept talking. "Do British people know what chips are?" He asked with a look of confusion, "I don't know what you guys call them. They're like potatoes but you slice them and fry them–"
"Alfred, I know what chips are," Arthur interrupted in frustration, "I have been in America for a very long time. It'd be ridiculous if I didn't know by now."
Alfred just stared, a blank look on his face. "But what do you call them in England?"
Arthur just sighed. "Crisps, Alfred."
"Oh, okay," He flashed his signature smile, "Do you want any crisps then?"
Arthur placed his fingers upon the bridge of his nose. "No, Alfred."
"Alright, that's cool. I just wanted to be a good host or whatever," Alfred explained nonchalantly, "My mom would kill me if she knew I didn't offer you food the minute you got here."
Arthur's face softened at that. "Well, I suppose that's alright then, if it was just about that."
Alfred privately wondered why it wouldn't have been alright before, but he pushed that thought to the back of his mind as he asked, "So, you ready to study then?"
"Ah – yes, of course." Arthur responded, wringing his hands as Alfred proceeded to drag their bookbags over to the coffee table by the couch. Both of them pulled out their books, folders, and notebooks, laying them out in front of them.
"So," Alfred began, "What do you need help with?"
Arthur stared at him for a moment, mouth going dry, before replying, "I, uh…I'm not entirely sure."
Alfred scrunched up his nose. "What does that mean?"
Arthur blushed and looked away, trying to hide his embarrassment in anger. "It means that I don't know what I don't know. I can't tell if I'm doing any of this right at all. If I knew what I was doing wrong, I wouldn't even be here in the first place!"
Alfred looked a bit taken aback, but he quickly composed himself and opened the book up. "Well, I…we could probably just start with what we're studying right now and go over that, right? And if anything comes up that you don't already know I can explain it."
He calmed down a little at that, the blush receding from his face. "Yes, I suppose that would be alright."
Alfred smiled in relief. "Good," He began, "So, um…there are five types of reactions, right? Single-replacement, double-replacement, synthesis, decomposition, and combustion."
Arthur nodded, looking to where he pointed at on the page. "Yes, I know that at least."
"So, let's take this double-replacement reaction here," He scratched down a quick chemical equation on a page of notebook paper, "And balance it."
Arthur spent a few minutes simply staring at the paper, pen in hand, before looking back up at Alfred in anger. "That's impossible. It can't be done."
Alfred smiled down at him, seemingly proud that he had come to that conclusion. "Yeah, it is impossible using the normal balancing method. But for something with all these funky ions, you half to balance it with the half-reaction method."
Arthur stared up at him blankly, and Alfred quickly explained. "You have to split it into two half-reactions," He illustrated his moves on the paper, "Balance those by adding electrons, water, and hydrogen ions, and then add them together. And boom, it's balanced."
"I don't…" Arthur furrowed his brows before pointing to one of the equations he had scratched out on the paper, "What exactly is it that you did here?"
Alfred stared at him, half-astonished. "That's just basic stoichiometry. Do you not know how to do that?" He asked, trying to sound encouraging and not horribly confused.
Arthur shook his head. "No, I don't think so."
"Wow, no wonder you've been having so much trouble!" Alfred laughed, but was quickly shut up by a heavily blushing Arthur elbowing him in the ribs.
"Sorry," He apologized sheepishly, "I didn't mean to make it sound like that. But really, almost all the math we've done so far is based on those kinds of calculations. If you didn't understand those this whole time, it really must have been hell for you."
Arthur turned away before begrudgingly mumbling out, "It's fine. Just teach me how to do the bleeding math, would you?"
"With pleasure!" Alfred exclaimed, a bright smile on his face as he leaned over Arthur to start scribbling various figures on his paper. The next few hours were spent like that, the both of them huddled on the couch around their shared schoolwork, Alfred explaining and Arthur listening as they went over a multitude of topics (not all of them entirely chemistry-related).
When Arthur left that night, it was with a relieved smile, a not-so-awkward hug, and the promise to return two days later.
Let it be known that trying to go through any chemistry class without understand how the weird box-math works is practically impossible.
This chapter was supposed to be just them studying, but suffice to say it expanded a little. I included the important parts of them studying (read: bonding) and not the actual studying itself, which is mostly boring and frustrating to listen to. Also, Matthew and Kiku are back, just in case you forgot they were characters in this story (because I did – oops!).
Thank you all so much for reading!
~Alix Marie
